ESCANABA — The Delta County Board of Commissioners voted to adopt an evaluation template for the county’s administrator and an interim employment policy during its meeting Tuesday. The documents bring to close a months-long process that aimed to address issues raised during the transition between current Delta County Administrator Ashleigh Young and her predecessor, Emily DeSalvo who was controversially terminated in 2023.

“I think we are already seeing the fruits of the template,” said Commissioner Matt Jensen, who noted the document was already being looked at by other departments for their own personnel evaluations.

The template is composed of a series of questions that are answered on a scale of one to ten, with one being “unsatisfactory” and ten being “exceptional.” Each question is then followed by space for answers to open-ended follow-up questions or comments.

The template contains two separate and slightly different sets of these forms, one for the commissioners and one for “peers,” which in this case are other department heads or county employees. A third form, composed entirely of open-ended questions, is also included for the administrator to evaluate themselves.

The final change to the template — which has been a topic of discussion at prior meetings but was officially adopted in newly-incorporated language Tuesday — was a provision that anyone giving a 1, 2, or 10 score on any individual question was required to provide a brief explanation of their rating.

The change addresses concerns that arose under DeSalvo, who was fired Feb. 7, 2023 after criticizing her inability to get explanations for low scores on her own evaluation during an 11-minute prepared statement at a board of commissioners meeting.

“I was given exceptionally low scores from both commissioners (Bob) Barron and (Dave) Moyle with no justification. I commented publicly, welcoming the feedback, so as to learn where my shortcoming are and to work towards improving them in the coming year. I was met with silence. I then offered a private meeting to the board, considering the commissioners may be more comfortable explaining my perceived shortcomings in private. I have yet to receive any feedback, either publicly or privately, justifying these low, discrepant scores,” DeSalvo said in her statement.

Following the statement — which included other claims of unethical behavior by Barron, Moyle, and Commissioner Bob Petersen — DeSalvo was fired in a split 3-2 vote with the commissioners criticized in her statement voting for her termination. The move was met with public outcry, and the commissioners were ultimately recalled on May 7, 2024, being replaced by current commissioners Kelli van Ginhoven, Jensen, and Myra Croasdell.

The board also approved a new interim employment policy Tuesday, which aims to address some of the issues that arose following the board’s decision to hire Young as the county’s new administrator. Young served as the county’s interim administrator for a number of months prior to her permanent hire, much of which was without a contract.

The new policy sets an interim administrator’s appointment to a period of 90 to 180 days, unless extended by the board of commissioners and creates a formal job description for an interim county administrator.

“We hope we never have to use it,” said Commissioner Steve Viau, shortly before the document was unanimously passed.